The old lady smiled and said to Granny Lu, "It's rare for our dignified and generous Lady of the Heir Apparent to speak up. If we don't invite her to stay for a meal, it would seem very unreasonable of us."

Granny Lu watched with a smile as the old lady joked with Madam Ning. Madam Ning smiled and quickly poured tea for the old lady and Granny Lu, saying, "Then I'll shamelessly stay. Don't worry, I'm not eating your food for free. I'll go help out later."

The old lady said, "You'd better not go. If you go, there will be a few more servants in the kitchen. My little kitchen isn't big enough to hold all of you."

Ning smiled and said, "Alright then, I'll stay here with you and Granny Lu and wait for you."

In the morning, Xu Bai said he wanted to eat liangpi (cold skin noodles). Xu Zhi knew how to make liangpi, and Xu Di had taught him how. A few years ago, after the wheat was harvested, it was taken back and ground into flour. Xu Di used this flour to make various foods, and liangpi was one of them.

Xu Bai loves cold noodles and often pesters Xu Di to make them. Xu Di doesn't have that much time to make cold noodles, so he teaches the old woman in the family who cooks to make them, and Xu Zhi learns from her.

When Xu Bai said he wanted to eat liangpi (cold skin noodles), Xu Zhi suggested that they make it in the old lady's courtyard so that she could have a taste.

The dough was prepared early in the morning, and after it had rested, the gluten was washed out, the starch water was allowed to settle, and then the starch water and gluten were taken to the old lady's courtyard.

They found a frying pan, steaming hot, and Xu Zhi and Xu Bai stood guard in front of the large stove. The servants in the small kitchen in the old lady's courtyard originally thought it was just the young ladies and gentlemen coming over to play around on a whim, but seeing how methodical and efficient Xu Zhi was, they knew that this Ninth Miss had done a lot of kitchen work. Even the Seventh Young Master, Xu Bai, who was helping out, followed his sister's instructions, either making the fire burn brighter or taking out two pieces of firewood to make the fire smaller.